g77 compiles illegal code in testsuite?

[Steven Bosscher]

Toon Moene wrote:

>>> Of course, IMHO, g95 should be backwards compatable with g77 :)
>>
>
>> This may not happen, because Fortran 95 has deleted a few
>> features from Fortran 77.
>
>
> Ah yes, the language has.  However, as compiler writers we could 
> decide to include the complete language g77 compiles into the language 
> g95 compiles.
>
> This would have the obvious benefit of making g77 superfluous and 
> reducing our maintenance burden.

Well, it it would make G95 more difficult to maintain as well.  Many of 
the features we're talking about are the ones that are the ugliest to 
implement correctly.  And let's not forget that these features were 
removed for good reasons.

BTW The only reason why so many people still code F77 probably is that 
there is no G95 :-)
Anyone who really cares that much about backward compatibility can still 
always use an older g77.

Greetz
Steven